From Carmody Groarke to EXYZT, recession can inspire young architects

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Out of adversity comes creativity. That’s the spin that many architects are putting on this particularly vicious recession — one that’s hit their profession more than most.

The last time anything on this scale happened was when the oil crisis of the early 1970s brought the great postwar construction boom to a halt.

Perhaps the biggest collapse then was in New York, where the city’s fiscal crisis ushered in the “decaying city” backdrop to classic films of the period such as Taxi Driver. Yet out of New York’s decline came punk, disco, hip-hop — and guerrilla gardening.